105MC Lecture (Week 2): “Audience” (Task 1), Reflection on film

Taken 2 (analysis on Audience)

Task: (https://keyconceptsinmc.wordpress.com/week-2-audience/)

While you are watching it, we want you to do two things:

1. Reflect upon the likely audience(s) for this film. For programmes on television, a good way to do this is to watch the adverts in the breaks as these will be paid-for adverts that have been included here to target specific audiences.
2. Reflect upon the effects that watching films like this might have on the audience(s) you have isolated. Which of the models that we discussed today seems to ‘explain’ your/your group’s relationship to that film?

As a group (either in person or via social media), discuss who you think the audience  for the FILM  is and what makes you think that? Once you have discussed it, go and research who the audience for the film is assumed to be by the broadcaster. What are the differences and similarities between your assumptions about the audience and the audience assumed by the advertisers/broadcaster.

1. Likely audience: Liam Neeson fans, action fans, fans of Taken franchise, Fans of actress ‘Famke’ (played Jane in X-Men series, Wolverines girlfriend. Plus fans of the director Olivier Megaton (Transporter 3 and Columbiana) and writer/producer Luc Besson (Lucy and Taken).

BBFC monitoring (BBFC.com), 12a certificate: Mild sex scenes, mild drug use, swear words-depends on manner they are used in, who is using language, it’s frequency and any special contextual justification. Sex is also briefly and discreetly placed in 12a’s.

Taken 2 was also re-edited to get a 12 a in the UK: http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/taken-2/22671/taken-2-re-edited-to-get-12a-rating-in-the-uk

Adverts (shown through Taken 2  on Film4 at 9pm, 5/10/15):

Film: Sponsored by Rowntrees

Featured Budweiser beer ad, property housing ad, Halo 5, vodaphone advert, pantene pro v advert and gambling adverts showcasing men in them.

All these adverts were male dominated, apart from the pantene pro v advert. This tells me that the key demographic of the film was men. Considering the specific adverts which were featured throughout the film were centered around them.

The effects:

I believe that the hypodermic needle theory can be rejected here. The reason I say this is because the audience are active rather than passive. For example by seeing the adverts (i.e gambling) they may feel like logging on to the website. Furthermore encouraged by the repetition of these adverts too (i.e gambling adverts).

The uses and gratifications theory however can apply to the audience of the film. This is because they may watch the film , fitting into one of the four categories of this theory. For example some audiences may watch the film for entertainment, as the film offers a lot of thrill and suspense. Thus audiences may feel engaged in the text entirely due to the entertainment factor. They may also use the text to ‘escape’ from their hectic lifestyles. Thus may find it different to observe someone else’s situation rather than their own, leaving their stresses and worries behind in the process.  Furthermore some audiences may watch it for education as the film includes abduction. Thus may find the topic at hand interesting to analyse. Although the film isn’t a true story, it still captures the emotions of abduction (people being taken).

Audience (Taken 2): https://prezi.com/yo​qalu_bxj09/audience-​profiletaken-2/

*By Aran Alisiroglu

Audience profile(Taken 2)

“Interestingly, there have a been quite a high percentage of female audience who have watched Taken 2 as 46% make up of the female gender which is almost evenly split with the male audience who have watched the film. This suggests that action/thriller films can appeal to a female audience, not just the stereotypical action aimed male audience.”

“In terms of age and class, the films stats show that the highest percentage from each are 15-24 year olds(34%) and C1(middle class-35%) This shows that Taken 2 and other films of its genre mainly appeals to a younger audience as 15-34 year olds made up of 65% of its audience and that it appeals generally to the middle class audience due to its location, characters wealth etc.
overall the film suggests that my film would most likely appeal to a younger audience and more likely to have more males than females interested in it. Taken 2 Age: Gender: Class:
15-24 38% Male- 54% AB: 16%
25-34 27% Female-46% C1: 35%
35-44 13% C2: 27%
45+ 21% DE: 22%

“Audience statistics: Taken 2 is a 2012 English-language French action film directed by Olivier Megaton which stars a wide international cast including Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen and Rade Šerbedžija. It is the sequel to the 2008 film Taken, and was released on 3 October 2012. After the events in Paris in Taken, relatives of the men whom Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) killed while searching for his daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace), arrive from France and return to their hometown of Tropojë, Albania, for the dead men’s funeral. During the ceremony, Murad (Rade Šerbedžija), the employer of the men and father of Marko, whom Bryan killed by electrocution and was Kim’s kidnapper, states that they will find Bryan to avenge the deaths of their loved ones.”

Going back to Audience before finding out statistics (above). I believed the audience to be mostly males aged 15 to 30 plus year olds. My predictions were right considering the rating was 12A in the UK and R.13 in the USA. What I didn’t really predict was the number of females making up the audience. Considering that the statistics above represent a fair percentage of adult female viewers. Who are most likely to have watched the film due to Liam Neeson. Considering he is considered to be an adored actor by females due to his husky British accent and sharp features. Thus the difference in my assumptions is that i didn’t really think many females would be interested in the film, which i was wrong about. Whilst similarities included the fact that those aged 15 onwards who were male were immediately drawn to Taken 2 (which correspond with the stats above).

In America the film was classed as Rated 13. Thus differed from the BBFC’s classification of PG13.

In regards to the advertisers (i.e Rowntrees to Beer Adverts) I’d say that they’ve categorised Taken 2 as a cinema film of soughts, which it is. Thus have relied on “cinema” associations as their main advertising strategy. Considering that the film is after 9, thus it’s when kids will be asleep. Whilst those in their teens would most likely  still be awake to watch the film on a weekday. As for the broadcaster I believe Film 4 would be targeting a more older audience due to them placing the film after 9 on a weekday. Thus target those in their late twenties and so forth. Furthermore the film has a lot of action plus violence too. As some scenes are quite distressing, thus an 8pm slot for the film would not be appropriate.

Film 4 is known to show box office hits 3 to 4 years after they’ve had a cinematic release. This channel is also known to show some art house indie films too. Thus this channel in particular features a wide range of films, including some US imports. Thus appeals to audiences in this way by showing box office hits such as Taken 2 a few years after they’ve finished their box office run/been released on DVD too.

105MC Lecture on “Audience”: Task (3 Main Models)

Reflection of 3 main audience models (pros and cons)

1. Hypodermic Needle Theory

Pros:  “The use of numbers and statistics can be an effective and reliable way of seeing trends.

• Effect studies often involve a large numbers of participants and sometimes extend over long periods of time.”

Source: http://www.slideshare.net/HannahCharlesMedia/hypodermic-needle-theory-29639628

Cons: “Has little place in contemporary analysis of audience reception, although it is possible that audiences revert to such thinking from time to time, these types of instances are rare, and don’t carry a great deal of momentum, if anything audiences today tend to be a lot more sophisticated and aware of how media messages are constructed.”

• “Too simplistic, changes to attitudes and beliefs are not always observable or easily measured in the way physics; changes are. Audiences interpret media differently.”

Source:  http://www.slideshare.net/HannahCharlesMedia/hypodermic-needle-theory-29639628

My own views: I believe one main drawback of the hypodermic needle theory is that it believes everyone injecting the media reacts in the same way. Thus are passive, which I strongly disagree with. Considering that people have different views and experiences, thus will react to the form of media in a different way to another person. As they hold different beliefs and values to the other person. Furthermore they are active in how they consume the text as they react to it differently than another (as alliterated upon before).

2. Uses and Gratifications:

Blumer and Katz’s uses and gratification theory suggests that media users play an active role in choosing and using it. The user to them has 4 basic needs, these being: Diversion (the need to escape from everyday life, and to relax), Personal Relationships (people use the media to fulfil their need for companionship, and to form a relationship with others. Followed by Personal Identity (using media to find out about ourselves, people presented in some way that in some cases can reflect upon us) and Surveillance (using the media to find out about what is going on all around us).

Pros:

• Divides reasons up for why audiences may watch a particular text.
• Outlines the intent of the audience through this theory.
• Showcases factors which contribute to the actual audience (see above description of uses and gratifications model).

Cons:

• Doesn’t fully answer why people watch what they watch. For example those interested in violence or media texts with a high sexual nature in them.
• Due to the uprise of technology and web-based content. The uses and gratifications may not provide a plausible answer regarding the consumption of a text.
• Some may not know why they actually consume media in the way that they do. Thus find the use and gratifications model to be unsuccessful in answering their questions.

Encoding-Decoding

Pros:

• Provides an in-depth analysis as to what the producer of a media text wants an audience to get from it.
• Lets the audience interpret the text how they wish. For example they may agree with the encoded message or disagree with it.

Cons:

• Audiences may not feel comfortable in seeing how the producer has deciphered the text.
• The end product may be different to how the producer intended it to be. As it may have been regulated and deemed unfit for viewing by ASA or another censoring board. Or the media text may have received a lot of complaints thus needed to be cut dramatically.

The relationship between audience and the media:

The encoding and decoding model explains the link between the audience and the text. This is because the text can be read in a variety of ways by the audience. Not to mention the audience can agree or disagree with the producers message thus can adopt their own individual views regarding the media they are consuming.

Yes, I agree the two models above work better with traditional media. The reason for this is because the audience have expanded in not only their views but also their beliefs. This is mainly due to the rise of new media. Considering that media can be viewed on a variety of platforms and devices. Thus due to this audience responses have changed dramatically, considering they have had to adapt to the rise of this media.  However uses and gratifications theory can still be used in todays day and age. For example if you take reality tv into context, then you can examine programmes such as ‘Made in Chelsea’ etc. This programme not only utilises social media (i.e twitter and instagram) but it fits into uses and gratifications theory. One example is to look at young audiences (16-25). From this we can decipher that they may watch ‘MIC’ for entertainment purposes, or even for companionship. Considering that they can interact with the reality stars from the show via instagram and twitter. Thus they can form a connection in this way. Which they would not have been able to do a couple of years ago when twitter didn’t exist/when social media wasn’t used as a marketing tool alongside television.

What are the key differences and similarities between the way that different audiences use older and newer forms of media?

Similarities:

They have adapted to the newer forms of media. For example they may have bought books in paper form, but now they may have downloaded the books as ebooks. Thus have adapted with the rise of media. Furthermore both types of audiences may have extended how they view the texts. considering they may watch the news on the phones or get emailed updates on the news rather than watching it at a certain time like they possibly used too (especially older audiences).

Differences:

Some audiences may not feel like they could get used to the new media forms. Thus older audiences may feel very comfortable using traditional methods, in consuming media. For example watching the news at set times, to reading books in hardcopy. Furthermore another difference is that younger audiences are more prone to understanding new media than older audiences. This is because of their generation as they’ve grown up with it, thus have evolved around it. Whilst older audiences have used the old media, thus are adapting to the new media now.

105MC(Week 2): Audience

In todays session we discussed audience and were set a worksheet after the lesson, to do in our 105mc groups.

Worksheet: (Task 1)

Answers from worksheet (includes group notes and my notes at bottom).

After we completed this we moved onto task 2. We decided on some ideas. The one we were more intrigued to do involved our team member pitching the idea to us. Having been brought up in Latvia, Uva thought of us creating a viral video where we’d speak Latvian. With the captions holding the right meanings, whilst we held the wrong ones. For example “how do you say”… Response: (will mean something different) etc. We will then make video viral around our contacts involving our team member branching out to her Latvian friends.